August 14 2021 - Port Dover Under the Weather

 

It was a non-event yesterday in Port Dover for the Friday the 13th motorcycle "rally".  The Norfolk County Mayor had declared it to be a "non-event."  I could see that they prepared for the crowds with portable sanitation booths, and lots of OPP directing traffic.  But there were to be no vendors and other services.  How many people ignored the declaration?  Up to 35,000 bikers came to town.   The town's businesses stayed open, too.   Pre-pandemic participation numbers in the summer top 100,000 people (and bikes).  From the pictures, it looked like there was lots of entertainment on the streets, so a lively time despite the circumstances. The articles don't have much to say in words - the point of the event is captured in pictures of bikes and bikers.   Here's an example: Gary Baker is a regular at Friday the 13th bike rallies in Port Dover. Baker, 72, of Corunna said he comes every year to the get-togethers. Now driving a Harley with a sidecar, Baker said he’s been to 48 Daytona Bike Weeks and 16 motorcycle festivals in Sturgis, South Dakota.  “I’ve been across the country (on my bike),” Baker said. Photograph taken on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press).   And this one: Michael Buchkovsky of Toronto cannot believe his eyes as he asks in delight, “What is it?” as Giuseppe Agrippa of Vaughan rolls up in his custom-built three-cylinder diesel chopper and enthralled the crowd at Port Dover on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press).   Here are combinations of the  abstract Aga Khan sculpture images with Flexifly manipulations.  It seems to me to look like views of the earth from space.

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Aug 13 2021 - The Famous Friday the 13ths

 

Has someone put together the list of historic Friday the 13ths?  This version comes from History.com HERE.    "On Friday, October 13, 1307, officers of King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land. Imprisoned on charges of various illegal behaviors (but really because the king wanted access to their financial resources), many Templars were later executed. Some cite the link with the Templars as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, but like many legends involving the Templars and their history, the truth remains murky. In more recent times, a number of traumatic events have occurred on Friday the 13th, including the German bombing of Buckingham Palace (September 1940); the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York (March 1964); a cyclone that killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh (November 1970); the disappearance of a Chilean Air Force plane in the Andes (October 1972); the death of rapper Tupac Shakur (September 1996) and the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy, which killed 30 people (January 2012)." I more more events - but they are all very unpleasant to horrible - they are covered in Livescience.com HERE.   But I did find the famous Friday the 13th movies all be ranked by Tomatometer Here. The full name is Rotten Tomatoes - clearly ranking bad movies.  There are 12 movies to rank so this would have taken some work effort.  The titles are all over the place in terms of approach and consistency - titles like Friday the 13th Part 3 or Part V - A new Beginning.  What about The Final Chapter or the Final Friday,  And there's Freddy Vs. Jason.  The original movie is ranked #1.  It was called "quaint". Here's another image of the sculpture at the Aga Khan Museum.  I so enjoy metal reflections where lines are distorted.  I look forward to being able to visit Toronto again and all its variations of sculptures.  Such a dilemma with the pandemic - one goes directly from destination to destination, minimizing contacts.

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North Up

I have a bias that North is up and even that there is an up for world.  This has to do with the magnetic north pole and all the pictures of the world with the north pole at the top - real pictures and pictures we create - maps.  Somehow, intellectually, I realize this might not be the case - that this is our Western World view that continues to be bubblesome. Did you know that the Blue Marble photograph - the famous photograph of the Earth taken from on board Apollo 17 had the south pole at the top - and got turned around to match our familiar view? The Greek astronomer Ptolemy (90-168AD) set this in motion - that north is up.  In between much happened.  It got cemented by the European navigators using the North Star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East. It has never been to the West.  The West is traditionally a representation of death, where the sun sets.  Poor Australia, always represented at the bottom.  There are maps with Australia at the top - McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World is the great example.  There is a person named the Wizard of New Zealand who has made an imperial British upsidedown map. In the Ancient world, Arabia, put south at the top.  The explanation is that if you wake up and face the sun, south is on the right.  With the sea to the south of them, there was nothing "on top" of the country, so they predominated the map visually. (This is what maps are for - to show 'our position').  By definition, they are political, politicized. Buckminster Fuller created the Dymaxion Map - no compass direction consistently facing the same way - it is an unfolded icosahedron.  Didn't he reveal the global village - look how connected we are in this version! Then there is the Peters Projection:  "one of the most stimulating and controversial images of the world".  It is HERE.  It addresses the challenge:  which is bigger, Greenland or China?  It is described as an 'equal area' map. "When this map was first introduced by historian and cartographer Dr. Arno Peters at a Press Conference in Germany in 1974 it generated a firestorm of debate. The first English-version of the map was published in 1983, and it continues to have passionate fans as well as staunch detractors. " This map is used for world aid by charity organizations such as Oxfam.   The International Society for Global Inversion believes that flipping iconic world maps everywhere would be a symbolic ceremony to help mankind break its old thought patterns, and act in a more ecological way.  We conclude with the Guide to Unusual Maps on the Web HERE.  Flowers and Floyd Elzinga's metal sculpture are our images today.

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Which National Day is It? That's Right - the Day the Music Died!

That's right - it's the day that Buddy Holly and his band died.  One website says that the name of the plane they were in was "American Pie." Snoops, the famous fact checker says:  FALSE. The song was written by Don McLean. Don McLean himself is quoted as saying: "the growing urban legend that "American Pie" was the name of  Buddy Holly's plane on the night it crashed, is equally untrue. I created the term".  There's another rumour regarding the title that it was chosen because McLean once dated a Miss America contestant, appears to be equally 'spurious', according to Snopes.  Another area of the urban legend is the number of people who "gave up a seat" on the ill-fated flight.  Snoops says this: "... the list of people who “gave up a seat” on this ill-fated flight has grown to rival the list of persons claiming to have been invited to Sharon Tate’s “quiet evening at home” the night the Manson family struck. Although Buddy Holly initially may have asked around to find other tour members...Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup were the only two persons who truly “gave up a seat” on Buddy Holly’s final flight. There's a website - it is in very strange font colours that has a line by line interpretation of the song.  The website home is the Wisconsin Historic Rail Connection and the photography site of Jim Kalrath. The song interpretation is HERE What do you think of today's image? You can see the entire metal panel with the rainbow stain caused by heat. It's been saturated to emphasize the colours.

Copper Smith in Niagara

On Saturday I took the last photos of the St. Catharines Gardens on the 2016 tour.  What a delight to find the owner is a Coppersmith and his workshop is in the garage.  He was working on restoring copper eavestrough for a Toronto house, along with lamps that would originally have had gas for lighting.   He said that one of his challenges is making new copper match the old so that the repaired eavestroughs are attractive. When I looked at the workshop table I remarked:  "Look at that colour on the table."  He laughed as he told me the colour came from Miracle Gro and that's what he uses to 'weather' the eavestroughs so they look old.

So Many Top Tens

So many lists to help us along:  I looked up what might be the top 10 of things.  Here they are: 10 Most Expensive Things 10 Fastest Things Top 10 Everything of 2014 10 Amazing Things in Nature The Greatest Things in This World Top 10 - The World's Best Trips The 10 most important things in the world right now Top 10 Things You Can't Know Top 10 Things to Eat, See and Do Top 10:  Things Only Real Men Can Do 10 essential changes - better world shopper Top 10 products China manufactures most in the world The Top 10 of Anything and Everything!!! Oddee - Oddities, Weird stuff, Strange things of our world - 10 bizarre things eaten by man's best friend, 10 heartwarming Veterans Day stories...

What Metal Has to Say

Rust, when it is new, is like molten gold.  That's what the abstract below is - newly rusted metal.  It isn't any ordinary metal, but found in the workshop of Floyd Elzinga, metal sculptor, whose studio is nearby in Beamsville.